Snaxshot#23: Horny, Horny, People 🥵
Snaxshot#23: Horny, Horny, People 🥵
sex snacks, hot produce, curation as edging
A newsletter on upcoming food and beverage trends that offers a curation of brands and aesthetics written by Andrea Hernández.
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“Can't help seeking corners
Of dark and dead end rooms
Where the drinks keep pouring down
And the candles keep me warm”
—Drunk in LA, Beach House
🔮 Peek into the future:
Sexual awakening
All lust leads to food
Curation of products
Spoonful of News
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Food Orgasm, Tale As Old as Time 💦
Blame it on the fact that I find myself deep inside a valley in the tropics with an unlimited supply of fresh produce, and at times unbearable heat that makes it almost impossible to cook, that I constantly rely on fresh fruits and veggies in lieu of meals. I’ll indulge in watermelon and mango outdoors, letting its juice flow down from my mouth, trickle down through my chest and fingers, and in those moments, accompanied by the faint songs of tropical birds, a reminder that food is sensual.
I’ve allowed myself to embrace the eroticism that comes from biting into a ripe plum, the euphoria that comes from biting into a cherry tomato as its insides burst in my mouth, it feels so primal, and even if brief, it feels like a connection to something so inherent in me, a reminder of being and my existence. When I was younger, I looked at produce with such disdain, knowing that with each bite they would deprive me of the experience of bagel bites and fruit roll ups, as a true 90s kids, and who can blame me?
As someone who is well aware of how growing up indoctrinated into snacks devoid of nutrition via the deregulation of children’s advertising in a way prevented us from having a deeper connection with what nourishes us, which in turn has led to what you see today, the commodification of wellness, that is selling fundamental food knowledge back to us, at a premium, capitalizing on this disconnect. It comes to no surprise that a major shift has happened in the industry as soon as Millennials became of age, taking control of what we put into our bodies, and as this movement matures, we now see the rejection to excess, mindless consumption, wastefulness in lieu of better for you, specialty grocers and niche marketplaces as well as the need for curation.
It’s like we’ve finally hit puberty in a way, and we have a new found influx of raging hormones, a sexual awakening of sorts, and all lust leads back to food.
Binging on Forbidden Fruit 🍑
Consider the symbolism of “forbidden fruit” in the origin story, a weird early indoctrination to “detachment” from what nourishes, but in a way, a premonitory message of just what can happen when we open of the floodgates of “options” —it also adds in the message of “shame” around nudity, both Adam and Eve covering up with fig leaves “ashamed” of being uncovered. It was like an unspoken friction that we have carried for millennia, that we should repress the inherent sexuality and allure of food, but alas, considering just how much outdated structures like religion, are falling amongst our generation, we are taking back this relationship in many ways.
La petite mort is an expression that has been used to denote the brief loss of consciousness around orgasms, a spiritual release of sorts or transcendence, its first use in relation to orgasms stems back to the 1800s. I’m here to proclaim that in a way, the popularity of “mindful eating” that’s risen in the last few years opposing to “mindless eating” could be considered a way for us to achieve “a petite mort” experience through snacking. Less “I’ll have what she’s having” moment and more of presence, through food achieving a connection with our purest essence, “I AM”. Sex is a way to achieve the “present” and food is a conduit that can allow for us to reach that same state, in a way, it’s healing and drawing us closer to our roots, a way of acceptance.
Enter Charlie Max’s “fude” a portmanteau of food and nude. For months now she has been hosting a series of dinners and posting recipes prepared in the nude, and tells Healthish on how nudity allowed her to reclaim her connection and love for herself, her body, her own vessel and the dinners have allowed others to do the same, strip yourself off negativity around body image and preaching self love through consuming healthy, plant based meals. Take for example as well, Daniel Soares, who owns the very sensual grocer, Alimentari Flaneur, who in his essay titled, “In Defense of Being Horny on Main” writes “am I cumming or is the fig?” and how this sexual, present connection has been lost in the modern grocer and how we have yet to be taught to accept sensuality in the mundane, that is, that it can be found in everything from the leaves of satsumas to a juicy persimmon. Last but certainly not in the least, take Stephanie Sarley, who a few years back took Instagram by storm with her provocative food pics, including these cream filled veggie cups as well as fingering fruits as a way to empower female genitalia and challenge aversion to female sexuality, that actually drew a lot of controversy regarding censorship from Instagram.
In a way, it feels like friction is receding, the rise of #foodporn could be directly linked to our disconnect and in a way allowed us to bridge back our relationship with food, and as that trend has matured, we find ourselves wanting to take it further, whether it be through nude dinners or having products that invoke that sensuality and even cater to our sexual needs.
Food Porn to Product Porn 🔥
Giving that we are the generation of instant gratification, who have grown up with the ability to visually signal using every detail of our lives, whether it’s us dining at a trendy European café over the summer because we’re “in the know” or indulging in that gargantuan Bloody Mary that doubles as a banquet, because it’s categorized as food porn, eating with our eyes became the norm in the past decade. From the avocado toast craze, to rainbow bagels, to the rise of foodies and mukbang, the past decade saw the manifestation of a generation that grew up with snacks as signaling (consider playground snack trade) who now had the tools available to take that inherent behavior to the next level, so much that Foodbeast pioneered the “food porn trading desk” where “foodies” can go head to head with their photos for a coveted feature on their page.
The rise of #foodporn amongst us became a way to connect with food in general, particularly drove our interest in global cuisine and exposed us to flavors beyond what we were familiar with. This rise in foreign ingredients and flavors has become appealing to BigFood and they have been finding ways to capitalize on this new fond interest of ours. It doesn’t stop there however, the #foodporn craze led way to another type of trend, the rise of product porn in food and beverage. Leave it to the generation who normalized riding in cars with strangers, to bring about the trend of taking pictures of our fermented hot sauces as a way of signaling.
There are entire accounts dedicated to “packaging porn” particularly for food and beverage items, this behavior also coming about at a time where food and beverage have become hot amongst venture capital, and thus we have this cycle where there is a lot of money to be spent building pristine websites and even sexier looking cereal boxes, and it pays off considering 70% of consumers say they now buy based purely off “aesthetics.” However it used to not be norm to take photos of your cereal box or much less, of your olive oils as a way of signaling. But in the past couple of years, and considering GOOPification and the rise of the “wellness influencer” pictures of fridges and pantry shelves became increasingly a thing, this leading the way for the rest of your food and beverage items to undergo that same “glow up” —shelvies are the new selfie.
Stemming from a decade of blanding, we have also seen just how much these products began to look alike, alas capitalism exists and everyone will follow the money, but that also led to brands to start thinking outside the box, pun intended, and in a way become edgier in how they present regular food and beverage products to stand out in a sea of sameness, and as someone who sees a lot of these on a daily basis, I had to ask, when did they get so damn sexy? Consider these olive oil bottles from Terraliva, leave it to the Italians to do something that resembles a luxurious parfum, dressed up in velvet that seems highly impractical but it also is so hot, would purchase just for the sake of adorning pantries with it. Or take Noam also adding that parfum look to dress up something as mundane as beer, at a time where beer industry has lost so much to hard seltzers, this would elevate any party at any given moment. Product porn is like an alluring siren song, but buyer beware, that it can also lead to you being Trojan horsed by pretty packaging.
Curation as Edging 😈
Going back to the “forbidden fruit” analogy, the whole premise of this origin story is that we should have stayed away from tree of knowledge, and in a way, it’s relatable, that maybe it’s best not to be exposed to so much at the same time. Take another story, Borges’ “Library of Babel” in which he conveys the pervasiveness of access to excess information to our pysche, conveyed through the Librarians that inhabit Babel, having access to every book ever written —past, present, and future that in the end capitulates the Librarians into an existential crisis that leads to their extinction. What’s most shocking of this short story is that it was written pre-internet days, back in 1941.
If you are a Millennial (sorry geriatrics) then you remember the transitional period of going from offline to online, and the pauses that early internet allowed for, as in it involved “dial up” and “buffering” and in a way allowed for a more thrilling experience once we were able to “connect” —it’s no surprise our generation finds itself exhausted after decades of living “extremely online” personas, nostalgic for those earlier days. We’ve been deemed the burnout generation for a reason, and we have been trying to find ways to undo this indoctrination into “instant gratification” and “consumption overload” —in lieu of slower, more mindful indulge. And as we knew once before, there is a lot more satisfaction in delayed gratification.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term edging, it’s basically describing the process of delaying an orgasm. Translated into our world of consumption, one could say that curation is a way of edging, or delaying our gratification by not exposing us to it all at once, and instead allowing for us to take in the experience a lot longer and in a mindful way. It comes to no surprise then, that a few years after being deemed early burnouts, we have seen the rise of “curators” and the need for curation. Looking back to previous example of Daniel Soares and Alimentari Flaneur, in previous conversations he’s explained how he “curates” produce and focuses on only providing what’s in season, as well as building on this experience in a synaesthetic way, making sure that you’re indulging in all your senses. From the visual, to smell and texture that combines the roughness of wicker baskets contrasting the smoothness of their fresh fruits, the same that goes into what one may consider, a “good fuck.”
Or take for example Satriale, an audiophile wine store in Lyons, France. They purposely only carry 51 wines at a time, and when asked why, the owners responded that they want to make sure that your discovery of the wine is an entire experience accompanied by music and light, it’s like a paradoxical cellar, where instead of darkness, the room is filled with light, one could consider it a sort of art gallery where wines are neatly displayed with their beautiful labels, to be consumed in more ways than one. And to add to further curation or “edging” they rotate their selection of wine weekly, adding to the anticipation and the longing for the experience to be repeated once again. The whole art gallery meets food and beverage consumption can also be seen in the likes of Naked Retail, a bazaar of trendy digitally native products (that includes food and beverages) that is curated around a theme, currently on display is “Future Of” and in an equal manner, offers an experiential journey that can only be taken in going through the entirety of the store, in contrast to the myriad of online directories these brands find themselves in.
Curation as a way to expand the pleasure of taking it at all in, CaaS is the new SaaS, and a more desired one.
Sexual Confections 👅
Alas we have arrived to our final destination, which is the rise products in food and beverage that are promising us sexual experiences wrapped in pretty packaging, a literal manifestation of what we’ve talked about above. Here are a few that drew my attention, and for your own knowledge, beware, if you find these wrappers or empty jars around your house, your partner may just be cheating on you with orgasm inducing chocolate.
Moody: They do functional chocolates that accompany a woman’s cycle as well as a libido one.
Phasey: Their sex chocolate is appealing on its packaging alone.
Gold Organics: Look just saying maybe you should try this once and report back.
Pearl Butter: Are you kidding me? I would go through an Orgasm bottle alone.
Functional Chocolate: Another chocolate promising to increase libido.
STARBARS: Hey while you’re doing the functional snack bar, why not one that will increase your sex drive?
Spoonful of News 🥄
As private label continues to outpace branded, Foxtrot launches their own line of ice cream, with more PL items in the horizon.
Ruby, Alimentari and Dada partnered to create a surrealist outdoor market, La Ferme, open throughout summer.
Olipop launches a campaign against BigSoda’s zero sugar alternatives.
US Supreme court will rule whether or not Nestle and Mars will be liable for child labor, trafficking and slave labor within their supply chain, the accounts are horrific, trigger warning.
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